Paul and I have been asked what we miss from up North by several people who are considering moving to Mexico. At first we said “nothing” and then realized that there are a few things that we miss – in varying amounts…

Natural Peanut Butter….you can get small jars of sweetened peanut butter in most grocery stores, and occasionally I’ll see a decent sized jar of Skippy, but that’s it. I should buy some peanuts and grind them in my Vita-Mix next time I have a craving, I guess.

Stash Tea – I love Stash Tea, especially Red and Green. Paul is partial to their Chai tea. In order to make iced green tea for myself here I need three teabags per glass- and it is still weak! I believe tea isn’t a big seller here so it is probably pretty old.

Boca products – especially their Bratwurst. I used to take an onion, some cabbage, red pepper flakes, and one of these – cut on the diagonal – and make an amazing, hearty dinner. I used their smoked ones with red beans and rice or in place of a hot dog on the barbeque. Man I miss these a lot.

Memory Foam Mattress topper – We had these on our beds up North but they were too heavy to bring with us. And our mattress here is way harder than we like. I have tried to find these here and they just aren’t around – and the funny thing is they are made in Mexico, just must be made only for export.

Genuine High Quality Parmesan Cheese – There are plenty of pale substitutes. I just want parmesan sometimes, is that so bad of me?

My Dyson – We didn’t have any room in the van and I have missed it ever since. I even tried to buy one from Amazon prepared to pay a ton of duty and they won’t ship it here. So I plod along vacuuming up dog hair, dust on the windowsills, and everything in between with my *&@#*! shop vac.

Vitamins & Ibuprofen in big bottles….I take a couple of vitamins a day and like to buy aspirin or ibuprofen in a larger bottle…hard to find here and they are pretty expensive. I have had a hard time finding aspirin or B-complex in anything but blister-packs of 20. Sheesh! When our son came down in March he was nice to bring me a stash that should last me quite a while.

So, folks, that’s it for me. I miss these things a bit but not that much…but next person coming to Mazatlán could bring me a nice hunk of Parm and some Bocas and I wouldn’t complain! (Just kidding, really!)